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When we elect a president (like him or not) we don’t try and change the rules to take away his authority granted by the voters, and that is exactly what has been done in Aberdeen.

The Citizens of Aberdeen voted for a Mayor and for a Council in November of 2015, and the City Council voted Monday night to change the results of the election because they think they know better than the voters how the Mayor and Council should interact.

The Charter of the City of Aberdeen is the document that establishes our government– it is our Constitution. It is a radical and unacceptable action to fundamentally change the form of government between elections.

This action is a violation of the fundamentally American principle that voters get to make decisions about their government.

Changes to the structure of government should never be rammed through without the public approving of the changes, and that is what Councilwoman Landbeck, Councilman Lindecamp, and Councilman Taylor have voted to do.

Specifically, these changes will take away the powers of the duly-elected Mayor over the budget, over oversight of the City government, of reporting to the public via the State of the City address, and removes the authority to make appointments for all public commissions of the City.

In order to include the voters in this process, I attempted to make these changes effective after the next Mayor is elected so that the people have a say in these changes. However, Councilwoman Landbeck, Councilman Lindecamp, and Councilman Taylor all voted against this change.

I have had multiple calls from community members to petition this issue to referendum, and I’m evaluating what would need to happen for that to be successful.

Executive Summary: The Maryland State Highway Administration is working closely with the City of Aberdeen to try to accelerate the completion of the construction projects on Route 22.

The City of Aberdeen is right in the middle of the huge Maryland State Highway Administration project to widen Route 22 from APG to I-95.

For three years, construction has been ongoing, and causing serious delays at Beards Hill and 22, Mount Royal and 22, Middleton and 22, and Paradise and 22.

We invited representatives from the Maryland Department of Transportation (who is responsible for all of MD-22) to come to the Aberdeen City Council and discuss ways to speed up the projects, to make the construction more manageable for our community and businesses, and to get an idea of an expected completion date.

We learned through two City Council meetings that the project at 22 and Beards Hill is 6 months behind schedule, with an expected completion date of late 2017. The Paradise and 22 intersection is 2 months behind schedule with an expected completion date of late 2017.

The primary concern for local traffic is access to the Beards Hill and 22 intersection where cars were sitting for 4-5 light cycles at rush hour. Aberdeen businesses who attended made some good recommendations that SHA agreed to take on.

Some of them were:

Adjusting the traffic signal timing to make accessing our local shops and restaurants easier

Marking the limited lanes better

Adjusting the work times (we learned that the current work schedule was 8PM – 5am weekdays, explaining why it is rare to see people working on the roadside during the day)

And SHA made some changes based on these recommendations.. They adjusted the signal timing to max-out the time for Beards Hill traffic to cross. They marked the “right-only” lanes better at Beards Hill and 22. And the put up signs that say “All businesses open during construction.”

These changes have made the traffic situation better– but we wanted to know how SHA can do this job faster. Can they work longer hours? Can they deploy more money to get more people working to get it done?

Then on Friday, May 26, SHA met came back to City Hall, this time with their Management team for the Construction project. They brought a proposal to detour Beards Hill Road after 10PM until 5am in order to get the intersection, on the McDonalds-APGFCU side done sooner.

This change will take an entire month off of the project– and if the weather is not too wet, we expect completion before August at the Beards Hill/22 intersection. We expect updates from SHA on a more regular basis so we can keep a better idea of progress.

If SHA deployed more money to get more workers working longer hours, the side-effect would be even worse traffic conditions while even more lanes are closed. Because of the potential of choking off our local businesses, this idea was put aside for now.

While this project is a long, long, long-term project, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. More to follow.

How would you spend $279,153 to improve Aberdeen? The Aberdeen City Council wants to hear your ideas! Please attend the Public Hearing on Monday, February 22 at Aberdeen City Hall at 7PM and bring your ideas and plans. If you cannot attend the hearing, SCROLL DOWN to fill out a survey about how you think we should spend it.

As the result of a City Revolving Loan program being ended by the State Government, the City has access to $279,153 to spend to improve Aberdeen– and Mayor McGrady and the Aberdeen City Council want your ideas!

In order to approve the plan to spend any of this money, the Aberdeen City Council will have to vote on it, but we need to hear from YOU.

The money has to be spent in a way that complies with 1 or more of the following:

“Benefit low and moderate income persons and households;
Aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight;
Meet other community development needs of an urgent nature, or that are an immediate threat to community health and welfare.”

So please join us at City Hearing on Monday February 22 at 7PM at Aberdeen City Hall or fill out the form below to let the Council know what you think. At the public hearing, everyone will have the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes about their ideas.

If you have any questions, please call Mayor Patrick McGrady at 410.357.1234 or email at PMcGrady@Aberdeen-md.org.

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The official notice of public hearing is below:

CITY OF ABERDEEN
NOTICE OF SECOND PUBLIC HEARING

The City of Aberdeen will conduct a Public Hearing to obtain the views of citizens on community, economic development, and housing needs to be considered for submission of an application to the Maryland Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). Citizens will have the opportunity to discuss proposed projects and to provide input on other needs to be considered. The hearing will be held at the Aberdeen City Council Chambers, 60 North Parke Street, Aberdeen, MD 21001 at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, February 22, 2016.

Citizens will be furnished with information including but not limited to:
The amount of CDBG funds available to the City of Aberdeen;
The range of activities that may be undertaken with the CDBG funds; and
The proposed project(s) under consideration by the City of Aberdeen.

The Maryland CDBG Program is a federally sponsored program designed to assist governments with activities directed toward neighborhood and housing revitalization, economic development, and improved community facilities and services. It is administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Maryland CDBG Program reflects the State’s economic and community development priorities and provides public funds for activities which meet one of the following national objectives, in accordance with the Federal Housing Community Act of 1974, as amended:

Benefit low and moderate income persons and households;
Aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight;
Meet other community development needs of an urgent nature, or that are an immediate threat to community health and welfare.

Efforts will be made to accommodate citizens with special needs with ten (10) days advanced notice to Monica Correll, City Clerk at 410-272-1600 ext. 211.

I want to share a heartwarming story with you that occurred during last month’s historic snowstorm.

On Monday after the storm, while I was working to get my neighborhood plowed out, I received a phone call from a nice woman who said that the folks at the Aberdeen Fire Department gave her my telephone number as somebody who wants to help people shovel out.

I said, “OK– what do you have for me?”

She explained that there is an amputee/disabled veteran who lives with his mother and needs help shoveling snow.

Two minutes later, I posted on facebook that an amputee veteran and his mom needed help shoveling and that I was on my way there. I asked for help via facebook with something like: “Can you help? Many hands make light work.”

Seven minutes later, I pulled off the road and banged on the front door. Ms. Sandie came to the door to say hello, and showed me the photo of her son, an amputee veteran in his twenties, on the wall.

Her son had tried shoveling out earlier, but he fell down a couple times because of his prosthesis. Overwhelmed by this story and the photograph of the young man on the wall, I insisted — “OK, I’m getting to work right now, and I hope to get done by dark. If I don’t get it done, I will be back tomorrow with help.”

It was ~3:15PM, and I wanted to get to work right away because I knew the snow would be freezing soon and would be much harder to shovel after dark.

Not five shovelfuls later, two big plainclothes army guys showed up ready to work. And they were smart — they brought a snowblower. One from Ohio and one from Michigan, they knew their way around snow. They had seen my facebook post minutes before and drove over to help. Sergeant First Class Anderson and Ed Swiger.

Five minutes later, two more guys showed up. An Army diesel mechanic and a soldier from Georgia, Thomas McEylea and Daniel McIntyre.

Then Mercedes Smith rolled up to dig in.

And we were all shoveling and snow-blowing and talking and working to help this family out.

It was awesome.

Then the neighbor asked for help, and we went and helped shovel that corner.

After we got done, Ms. Sandie expressed that she was thankful and wanted to make sure we all knew about the April 30 fundraiser for her son, Jesse Wallace, who is trying to raise money to get a hand-cycle to compete at the Wounded Warrior Games. These hand-cycles are custom-built and cost between $3000 and $6500.

This fundraiser is a Poker Run to be held at the Chesapeake Harley Davidson in Darlington on Route 1. A Poker Run is a motorcycle or car event that starts and ends at the Harley Dealership. At several stops along the way, each participant picks up a random playing card. At the end, the person/group with the best hand wins!

I hope you will consider participating in Jesse’s Poker Run Fundraiser, and as more details are released, I will share them here.

Kindheartedness and neighborliness is alive in Aberdeen, and I’m so thankful I got to be part of this experience to help one of our own in such a simple way. This is what real ‘community’ is about– let’s all try and grow community together. There are lots of opportunities right in our neighborhoods to make big differences in other people’s lives. Let’s get it done.

If you have ideas of how to build community and want to share your ideas, let’s talk. I view my job as Mayor as a facilitator to connect people to solve problems. Want to start the “Aberdeen Snow Shovel Brigade” in your neighborhood? Do you know a family who needs help? Send me a message or call me at 410.357.1234 and let’s use community to solve problems.

Here is the link to Jesse Wallace’s GoFundMe campaign, to fund the purchase of a hand-cycle. Please contribute if you are able:

As always, my Cell Phone number is 410.357.1234. You can email me at Patrick (at) patrickmcgrady.com or using this contact form.

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Respectfully,

P.S. Also, a big THANK YOU to Ted Wilcox and Fred Norman, who showed up to help in less than an hour, but we were already done with the shoveling 🙂 Also thanks to Leonora Garvey, who called me to tell me about the need for help.

In order for the people of Aberdeen to be fully-represented on the Aberdeen Council, the Council will be asked to vote on February 8 to approve the nomination of Jason Kolligs.

The Council has already rejected Mayor McGrady’s first nomination of Sean DeBonis, one of the two candidates who were tied in the November election.

In order to move Aberdeen forward past the vacancy, the Council must vote to approve McGrady’s nomination of US Navy Veteran Jason Kolligs. Aberdeen has many serious issues to address, like downtown development, high water bills, and safer communities. In order to address these, the people of Aberdeen deserve a full Council.

Please contact the members of the Aberdeen City Council and ask that they vote to support Jason Kolligs for the Council Vacancy on February 8, 2016 at the City Council Meeting to be held at City Hall.

Fill out the form below to email all the members of the Aberdeen City Council and ask that they support Mayor McGrady’s nomination of Jason Kolligs. Tell them “Please vote to support Jason Kolligs so that the people of Aberdeen can be fully represented on the Aberdeen City Council. Put the politics aside and vote to approve Jason Kolligs, a highly-qualified candidate for City Council!”

Aberdeen Mayor Patrick McGrady announced his intent to nominate Jason Kolligs, a highly-qualified Aberdeen resident, to fill the vacancy on the Aberdeen City Council.

Jason Kolligs is a US Naval Academy Graduate, former US Navy Officer, and engineer who is ready to serve the people of Aberdeen starting as soon as the Council approves the nomination.

Mayor McGrady followed up the declaration of intent to nominate Kolligs with a message to the people of Aberdeen, asking “Contact the City Council and ask this Council to vote to approve Jason Kolligs, a highly-qualified citizen of Aberdeen, so we can get down to business with all the important work of City Government.”

At the next meeting of the Aberdeen City Council on January 25, 2016, per the Aberdeen Charter, Mayor McGrady will nominate Kolligs to fill the vacancy on the City Council. Three votes are required to confirm the nomination and seat Kolligs on the Council.

Regarding Jason Kolligs, Mayor McGrady said “I am personally proud to know Jason Kolligs and can tell you that he is prepared to hit the ground running to make Aberdeen a better place to live and work.”

The vacancy on the Aberdeen City Council exists because of a tie in the election results of the November 2015 Aberdeen City Municipal Election. The electoral tie created a vacancy on the Aberdeen City Council, and the Aberdeen City Charter instructs that a vacancy is to be filled by a nomination by the Mayor, and confirmation by the Council.

An INCOSE certified systems engineer with total product life-cycle and acquisition life-cycle experience with a focus in requirements engineering and test plan development. Strong academic and applied background in systems engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering. Most recent experience is program management and acquisition systems engineering at the DOD level. Multiple leadership positions covering both personnel and budgets. Active Top Secret (SSBI) clearance. Prior military and software experience makes for versatility within systems engineering. Well-versed in presentations, customer interaction, and company travel.

· Anti Tamper Expert leading a team through Trade Studies and Key Management Plan

· CMWS Data Collection Team Lead with a seven (7) member team performing all aspects of test event coordination including classified material mobility plans, site access, equipment selection and delivery, test setup, and travel.